On 25 November 2025, the national Service Centre for Open Access (SeDOA) hosted its first online event, Diamond Open Access auf Länderebene: Impulse, Perspektiven, Austausch (Diamond Open Access at Federal State Level: Ideas, Perspectives, Exchange). As the German Diamond Capacity Centre, SeDOA wants to make the status quo of diamond open access visible and to provide information centrally. The focus of the event was on the activities, challenges, and desires of the federal state initiatives. The aim was to identify common ground and synergies for a transformation to diamond open access across federal state borders. The event was thus an important starting point for strengthening the networking of activities in the area of diamond open access

The event began with a brief presentation of the planned offerings of the national Service Centre for Diamond Open Access (SeDOA) and its minimal definition of diamond open access, which it published in order to forge conceptual consensus and to be able to answer enquiries in a consistent manner. The four invited speakers then delivered their presentations on the respective approaches, measures, and challenges of the four federal state initiatives in the area of (diamond) open access. When doing so, they shed light on, inter alia, the current status quo, existing framework conditions, already implemented and planned measures, and the role of federal state strategies:

• Dorothee Graf (Duisburg-Essen University Library) presented openaccess.nrw, an initiative of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). With the aim of establishing a coordinated service infrastructure for the digital transformation, oa.nrw, as a multiplier and an important information hub, provides forward-looking impetus for open access in NRW, for example with the publication in 2023 of the Open Access Strategy of the State’s higher education institutions.
• In her presentation on the Open Research Office Berlin, the State of Berlin’s Coordination Office for Open Science, Maike Neufend (Open Research Office Berlin) outlined activities and developments in the capital city. Since 2016, institutions in Berlin have been supported in implementing Berlin’s Open Access Strategy (2015), which is currently being further developed into an open research strategy. The launch of Berlin Universities Publishing (BerlinUP) represents a milestone in the development of publishing infrastructures.
• Ben Kaden (Potsdam University of Applied Sciences) presented Open Access Brandenburg (VuK), which since 2021 has acted as a point of contact and a mouthpiece for the higher education institutions and the Ministry for Science, Research and Culture of the State of Brandenburg. In this capacity, the VuK assumes tasks related to supporting transformation and publishing. The Open Access Strategy of the State of Brandenburg was adopted in 2019.
• Anastasiia Afanaseva (Saarland University) presented the newly established Servicestelle Open-Access-Saar, which plans to offer networking, competence development, and information and consulting in the area of open access. Analyses and a feasibility study on the implementation of a state publication fund and the acquisition of third-party funding are also planned.

The slides of all the presentations have been deposited in Zenodo. The open-access.network Länderdossiers describe in detail the strategies and measures of the individual federal states.

After the presentations, the federal state initiatives formulated several shared desires vis-à-vis the Service Centre for Diamond Open Access (SeDOA):

1. Representation of the legal interests of research institutions at national level to address competitive logics
2. A legal opinion on the classification of diamond open access infrastructures as technical publishing constructs
3. Elaboration of scenarios and their feasibility for diamond open access publishing infrastructures at national and federal state level and in collaborations
4. Increased lobbying and the development of best practices
5. Representation of interests in the debate on research evaluation 

The space was then opened for questions and discussion. Participants showed particularly keen interest in the definition of diamond open access. As the discussion of the concepts is especially interesting and relevant for the library community, SeDOA plans to create space for this on other occasions.

A further key topic of discussion was the question of why diamond open access, despite its current high science policy relevance, has hardly been implemented in the federal states to date. Why this is the case is, of course, not easy to determine. However, several participants shared the impression that priority is currently being given to topics such as AI and digitalisation, while open access is being somewhat overshadowed.

The concluding message to all participants was: Form networks! Raising awareness of open access and implementing projects is easier together. The speakers emphasised their willingness to be available for further questions and highlighted the opportunities for further exchange by email and within the framework of future networking meetings. Further information on and the contact details of the federal state initiatives can be found at open-access.network.

This kick-off event was an important step in the direction of stronger networking of diamond open access activities. Follow-up workshops to deepen the discussion and develop practice-relevant content are already being planned. We hope that this and subsequent events will create broader awareness and more effective implementation of diamond open access. Our next events will be announced on the SeDOA website.

Strauss, H., Wermbter, K. (2026). Diamond Open Access auf Länderebene: Impulse, Perspektiven, Austausch. Ein Kurzbericht zur Online-Veranstaltung. open-access.network. https://doi.org/10.64395/a1e6y-e4t68